Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema Finishes IRONMAN Arizona

How do you find time to train for an IRONMAN as a congresswoman? When you’re Kyrsten Sinema, how do you not?

by Kevin Mackinnon

Next time you want to say you’re too busy, you don’t have what it takes, or your life is just too crazy to be able to train for an IRONMAN, think about Kyrsten Sinema. That would be U.S. Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema, the one with four degrees who is an adjunct professor at Arizona State University. Not a day goes by that Sinema doesn’t look at her life and thank her lucky stars that she made it to where she is now—she is living proof that hard work and determination will get you pretty much anywhere.

Sinema graduated from high school at age 16, despite the fact that for much of her childhood her family lived in incredible poverty, including two years of living in a deserted gas station without running water or electricity. Hard work and determination got Sinema the scholarship that allowed her to go to college for the first of those four degrees she’s since earned. On Sunday, that same hard work and dedication got her across the finish line at IRONMAN Arizona.

The congresswoman's IRONMAN achievement is even more impressive though; a year ago the 37-year-old couldn’t swim. Well, OK, she could dog paddle. After years of running marathons and competing in relay at the Soma half-distance race in Tempe, Sinema decided that it was time to take on the challenge of a triathlon. She hired Olympic gold-medalist Misty Hyman to teach her how to swim and spent her first lessons literally learning how to put her face in the water and blow bubbles. "Misty mostly trains kids, who I figured were about my level," Sinema jokes.

Once she figured the stroke out, Sinema had one more obstacle to overcome: her fear of swimming in open water. During her first few triathlons Sinema found herself panicking in the water and would finish the swim on her back. Anne Wilson, one of her coaches from Camelback Coaching, took her to different lakes and practiced with her until she overcame her fear. "She helped me to manage my panic so I could do the front crawl," Sinema says. "For me that was the biggest challenge, that real fear I had for swimming."

After a life spent overcoming challenges, Sinema has still found her IRONMAN journey an enlightening one. Here are some of the tips she can pass on from her experience this year

Kyrsten Sinema's triathlon tips

Fitting it in is really about discipline and hard work. "You have to have a real commitment to overcome challenges that come up while you’re training and you have to create a plan and stick to the plan even when you don’t want to."

She does her training... "Very early in the morning. Sometimes I finish my training before the sun even comes up."

If you follow your plan and put in the hours you will get to the finish line. "I train seven days a week. Monday through Friday I do between one and two hours. On the weekends I do my really long training. Saturdays would get up to between six and a half or seven hours and my run training would get up to four hours."

It comes as no surprise that Sinema feels very strongly about fundraising through her racing. She raised money for the Desert States Charitable Foundation through her race in Arizona.

"I really feel like my story is that of the American dream," she says. "Overcoming challenges combined with people helping each other. I’ve been helped along my whole life. When my family was homeless and hungry, people gave us food and clothes. When it was time to go to college, the government gave me funding through programs, and my university gave me a scholarship."

And it also comes as no surprise that Kyrsten Sinema finished IRONMAN Arizona in 15:12:34. 140.6 miles? Just another obstacle to overcome.